In a report for the Daily News, John Harper says while “one Mets person” believes Jon Niese would be enough to acquire Royals OF Alex Gordon, he wouldn’t make such a trade.

“I’d rather keep the young arms and buy the bats (when the Mets have money to spend next winter),” Harper’s source explained.

In 161 games for Kansas City in 2012, Gordon hit .294 with a league-high 51 doubles, a .368 OBP, 14 home runs and 72 RBI although he struck out 140 times in 721 plate appearances.

Gordon is in the second year of a four-year, $37.5 million contract he signed before 2012 season. He earned $6 million in 2012, will earn $9 million in 2013, $10 million in 2014, and $12.5 million in 2015. He holds a $12.5 million player option for the 2016 season.

Michael Baron, Contributor

That’s fairly significant. To me, the only players worth dealing someone like Niese for are players like Gordon or Justin Upton, and it doesn’t sound like Harper’s source wants to deal Niese for someone like Upton either. I also wonder if the Mets’ thinking is changing in general, now that R.A. Dickey has won the Cy Young and the fans have responded in the manner they have. Sandy Alderson did acknowledge last week they might have to deal pitching in order to get better, but that was before Wednesday night. Could they simply hold onto their pitching (and go into the season with an impressive rotation which is getting better)? If they aren’t willing to include Niese in a deal for Gordon, and they can’t command a strong package in exchange for Dickey – as Buster Olney of ESPN suggested in his column this morning – it wouldn’t be a good idea to move either player for lesser packages.